JNewman

Phil the OCP, Peddinghaus, from the looks of them the GS tongs and even the tongs from Pakistan are all FORGED tongs. I think you would be much better off with 2 pairs of those than the fabricated tongs on ebay. If you buy 2 good quality tongs you will use them for years, if you buy 4 pair of cheap tongs you will use them till you replace them. I heard an interesting saying the other day, "I am to poor to buy cheap things".

I find the pair of 1/4" v bit OCP tongs (now chainmaker tongs) I bought long ago very usefull, they hold 1/4" 3/8" and hold sheet fairly well also. They also make reasonalbly good pickup tongs because of the crossways groove. The longer reins and crossways groove are a good improvement Grant has made to them since I bought mine. I ground a crossways groove in mine a couple of months before I saw the new forged in groove ones ( much stronger)

What kind of cores are they using? Typically a core that size will not shrink an appreciable amount unless it is a hot box core and even then the core should shrink evenly. However cores DO crush as the metal solidifies. The other thing that can happen is burn in where the sand burns into the metal. This is common where there is a small core surrounded by a lot of metal like in this case. If the surface is rough it may be burn in. Zircon or Chromite cores are often used in cases like this they also are very conductive and are used to prevent shrinks in areas of steel castings by promoting directional solidification. If the cores are not shell cores (hot box) I would check to make sure there is not a buildup of zipslip release on the inside of the corebox. This release looks like aluminum paint and gets on everything you touch. I have seen zipslip built up as thick as 1/8" on coreboxes or patterns. If the problem is consistent he could modify the corebox to compensate for the metal shrinkage. I have built patterns that are curved so that the casting ends up straight. Sometimes there is some trial and error involved in getting things right.

I would just give it a little touch with an angle grinder. Hardy holes and tools vary considerably in sizes. Even new anvils have different sized holes. A little tight is better than loose, grinding a little off is easily done and you then have a nice fit. Don't forget that an exactly 1" square will not fit in an exact 1" hole everything needs clearance.

Around here the coke was less than half the price of coal. I am not sure now as guys are getting it from a different supplier. One advantage for those in the city is that there is much less smoke. It does take quite a bit more air though especially if you plan on forge welding with it.

If you don't have an old axle, I just called and 12" of 1 1/4" 4140 is $7.40. That is buying just 12" at a small supplier. That would give enough for a hot cut a cold cut and a small hammer or hot set. For an extra couple of dollars they would even cut it into the lengths you need

That is what I got yesterday after I hit it hard as I could with a 12lb sledge. I was driving the key out of the sow block on my hammer using a handled punch but as I don't have 3 hands I had the punch propped up so I could hit it. When I hit it off center it came flying up and hit me on the cheek. Once the stars cleared I reallised that rapidly growing red puddle was coming from me. When I returned from the hospital I did what I should have done first, and built a jig to contain the punch and hold it in place while I hit it with the sledge. The other thing I did was move the treadle shield that had been sitting behind me interfering with my backswing. Not only were things safer set up this way but two good blows and the key was loose, fewer than normal.

I would get videos from UMBA rather than that video if it is the Clay Spencer one. It is just a video taken at a conference as are the UMBA ones. The UMBA ones are much cheaper and most of them have much more material. There are several UMBA videos available with treadle hammer work including at least one with Clay Spencer.

The customer dropped of another piece of material this morning and I bent it 90 degrees and then straightened it back out. No cracking so I am going to bend them cold on the flypress.

I have some machined aluminum pieces to bend for a customer. I would prefer not to anneal them as the not bent parts should be as stiff as possible. They are only 1/4" thick and I was going to go with a 5/16 inside radius 45 degree bend. Does anyone know if this is likely to crack or can I go ahead and bend it withot annealing.

When I assisted Elizabeth Brim at Caniron in Hamilton she had a piece of pipe welded onto the 2 pieces welded together. She then just held a rubber tipped blow gun onto the end of the pipe and blew the air in. Doing it this way seems much safer as you cannot get as high a pressure just holding the tip into the end of the pipe and if anything goes wrong stopping the air is just a matter of letting go of the trigger on the blow gun or letting it out of the end of the pipe.

I would not worry about that. Yes you will lose a little efficiency but not nearly as much as you would by not having enough weight, your best use of minimal funds is to get the most weight you can. Don't wory about specific dimensions. When you get the block of steel make sure you round the sharp corners (leave a small area with a crisp corner) using the radiused corner of the anvil to draw out will make a big difference.

O1 and A2 are both tools steels which are very expensive. You don't need tool steel for an anvil. You would be far better off to buy the biggest piece of mild steel you can afford. Yes something harder than mild would be better but having some mass is much more important. It will take a lot of forging to wear a heavy piece of mild steel and while you may mark it up with missed hammer blows you can grind or file those out or just flip it over and use the other side.

I just used a bottom taper tool on flat dies for the forging of the taper.

Where is your friends new shop going in? I would guess that DND has all the manuals and foundation plan but if not it is well worth buying from John at Massey.

There is nothing wrong or unsafe with holding heavy stock with tongs. I am currently using tongs to hold 2 3/4" round while forging under a power hammer. The tongs must fit properly but they are removed while stock is in the forge so that they do not heat up unlike welded on handles. I am not saying that welded on handles should not be used but tongs have been used on very large stock for centuries. The shop my hammer came out of commonly worked 6" or larger stock with tongs and a jib crane. The largest pair they had in the shop were 16" tongs.

Thanks I wanted to make sure before I did anything to mess this up. I really don't want to pay to test an extra one. Or make an extra forging for that matter.

Yes John the hammer is starting to earn its keep. I have been working a lot of 3" 4340 taking it down to a feather edge. I am actually using full power occasionally.

I am working on a job right now (4340 hook) that I have to get Magnetic particle inspected after I get it heat treated. There are no surface cracks allowed anywhere on the forging. After the HT the part will be covered in scale which I have to remove for the test. Will shotblasting, sandblasting, power wirebrushing or hitting with a sanding disk cause any problems with the MPI. Appart from being careful not to get any shuts are there any problems I have to worry about forging this?

While John's information is excellent I think you have to remember that the hammer installations he is speaking about are for huge hammers with tup weights weighing as much as your whole hammer. These installations are in the 10s or even 100s of thousands of dollars. You are installing a small hammer that if you are concerned about shaking from the hammer, just pour an extra yard of concrete in your foundation. That is about an extra 2000 lb of mass of inertia block for around $100. The extra weight makes a big difference. Put a 1lb block of steel on the floor, hit the side of it as hard as you can with a sledge hammer, now do the same with an anvil. My 600lb hammer with a proper foundation (that I bought the plans for from John N) shakes the floor far less than my homebuilt hammer does with a 100lb head and no foundation but the floor sawcut around it.

Here is the other metalworking end of my shop. I know it looks like woodworking but it is a pattern shop so therefor it's a metal shop ; ) My big post lathe is outside tarped up because it doesn't get used that often. I have a welding curtain that I draw between the two parts of the shop if I have a lot of welding or grinding to do. If I do any woodwork in the metal shop I ALWAYS make sure I clean up any sawdust or shavings before I light a fire, weld or grind.

Monstermetal click on post reply rather than using the quick reply, then click on manage attachments.

Here is the metal end of my shop, it looks pretty rough after Monstermetals shop pictures. I have some re arranging to do when I get a chance, I need to move the small power hammer and my belt sander. I try and keep everything on the side of the shop with the shelving mobile so that I can move it out of the way so that I can get larger patterns out of the pattern shop or occasionally the really big ones end up partially get built in this space. I also need to try and keep open space for skids coming in or out.

Very nice little vice I like the idea of an itegral spring rather than a separate one.

I will be picking up two other smiths at 6:00 and heading out. Should be there early afternoon.